Author
Topic: Heeling I actually like to do! (Read 2449 times)

Ok, so this Sunday I learned two REALLY simple exercises at Delta's STAR puppy class. I mean like "why didn't I think of that?" type simple but I actually like doing them, so I've been practicing heeling w/Delta for once.

#1: Heel 2 steps, sit, heel 2 steps, down. The thing that I was having trouble with is that you have to start out only doing a couple steps of heeling w/pups, but constantly breaking her out to start again felt like I was accomplishing nothing. Since she's old enough and knows enough to do chains of behavior, breaking up heeling without "breaking out" of heeling works really well. I had her heads-up attention and we didn't go far enough for her to get out of place.

#2: "Choose to heel" game. I probably wouldn't have tried this one if my trainer hadn't used Delta as a demo dog and shown how well it worked for her. The idea is you have the dog off-leash (or dragging a leash) and toss a treat away from you. Then you start heeling by yourself and keep walking around until the dog finds heel. Then you praise them, throw a party, and toss another treat away from you. I might try to get video of this if I can get a volunteer to take it, since you move around too much to capture it with the camera sitting still. When I did it this morning, Delta was clearly trying to figure out what I was doing and offered other behaviors (like sitting on the rug).. and all I had to do to correct it was to keep walking and wait. A good practice in patience for me, and she rewarded me with lots of heads-up heeling moments!

YAY!!! Heeling really can be fun, you just have to find the other fun ways to train it. The methods I've used with Bauer are different than the traditional bait/lure methods I had learned long ago, so it's becoming quite a game for us - which is what I *really* want out of heeling, since it's really not a fun exercise for me or the dog.

Yes, I LOVE the Choose To Heel program and I think it works pretty well. I have the book on it somewhere - need to hunt it up.

Also, several seminars and privates that I have been to have suggested this......walk backwards with the dog in front of you, the dog must be looking up at you (use treats to get their attention), when the dog has his attention on you and is heads up - turn around so the dog is in heel position, drop your left hand with a treat to your middle and then reward dog. Start again walking backwards......etc and build up the number of steps you can take with the dog in heel position before treating.

Yes, I LOVE the Choose To Heel program and I think it works pretty well. I have the book on it somewhere - need to hunt it up.

Also, several seminars and privates that I have been to have suggested this......walk backwards with the dog in front of you, the dog must be looking up at you (use treats to get their attention), when the dog has his attention on you and is heads up - turn around so the dog is in heel position, drop your left hand with a treat to your middle and then reward dog. Start again walking backwards......etc and build up the number of steps you can take with the dog in heel position before treating.

This is one of the ways we've been doing heel and Bauer is awesome at it. I think this has worked the best with most of the other methods, atleast for him.

Here ya go. Hopefully, this is what Kerry is referring to. But, the basic steps are to have the dog on leash coming towards you, treating while he/she is coming towards you - sorta following you as you walk backwards. Then, you just turn so that you are in automatic heel position and treat heavily at first, for the dog staying in that position. Now, I don't treat as often - every now and then, so that he does't know when it's coming and he remains focussed, etc.

Yeh, it's just one of the many ways I've worked with him on heeling. I find the more you mix up your heeling routine and pattern, the more attention and clean heeling you get out of it. I did alot of doodling with Grady, which cleaned up his heeling, so I'm trying to start Bauer out with it right away.

This mostly teaches loose leash walking and attention, but you can add in the formal heeling from this as well. I do this and add in a couple of circle/spins, or working on going thru my legs, sharp turns left/right/and about, so that he's keeping his attention on me and never knows what I'm going to do next. This is what I want right now - just heeling next to me, not worried about exact position in this vid - you'll see I reward incorrectly several times, mostly by mistake, but also because I wanted a heel with loose leash and wasn't too worried about a formal position. Mostly, I make the mistake of rewarding away (out and forward) as I lean down to give him the treat. So he now moves out from me (yikes!), rather than in. I'm working on proper heel position in a stationary position for now. But this is a fun standard exercise to get nice heeling from.

I was going through some of my notes yesterday, and something else that Bridget Carlson did in her seminar, was to teach the dog to heel between your legs.....another kinda fun thing to do. They would be heeling beside her and she would give them some word and they would come between her legs and heel in a heads up position.....it looked really pretty. Something else fun to try, if one is co-ordinated enough. She said that she found that it was helpful if you had a dog who tended to heel wide of you, it brought them in closer.

Another fun game she used.....and I am honestly not sure how well this would work with Trigger - but she had a toy in her back pocket, and the dog would be heeling next to her, and she would say something like - 'do you want your toy', and the dog had to put forth some effort (good heeling for a few steps) and then she would release the dog to go and get the toy, dog would get it out of her pocket. You have to get them to put forth effort after asking them if they want the toy, and they need to realize that they can't just go and grab it until you release them too. But the idea is that then you could use those words in the ring to get the dog to put forth effort, and they would know that a toy is coming later.She does the same thing with food - no food on her - but she would say to the dog - do you want to get your treats - and the dog has to put forth effort and then you release them to get their treats/food etc. But this is something you could build up to - initially say it, and the dog has to heel for a step and then you release them to the food - and then gradually build up the amount of time they heel. Another phrase you can take in the ring with you. But the idea is that the dog knows if it puts forth effort then something good is coming, and it acts as a bit of a stress releaser in the ring.

Yes, definitely! The "bridge" to the jackpot! I did that with Grady after going to her seminar and boy, did it make a difference. I've even started that with Bauer. Bridget would say something like, "are you hungry" and that gets the dog all excited, ready to do anything knowing that a HUGE reward was coming. So, I started saying to Grady "you wanna get din-din" or "you wanna treat" and in the ring, that worked out really well. I felt funny asking Grady if he wanted his din-din iin the BN ring, but his heeling was much better for it. I'm sure the judge was like, "nah, already had lunch, dinner will be later," lol! But after our heeling patterns, Grady would run right to the treat bag on the table and wait like, "um, you promised!" lol

I forgot about the toy in the back pocket. I keep Bauer's in my armpit and drop it to him after a few steps. Will have to work to the back pocket too. I LOVE Bridget Carlson. Learned so much from her seminar.

I'm going to have to work Bauer between the legs too. He goes wide, but I know that's my own fault in my handling, so I'm working on that too. She also encouraged the circles/spins and weave between the legs that we do - keep the guessing. Works well and really does make heeling fun.